He came into my room on a Monday morning and said,

"God made everything!" GRITS has officially started Sunday school and so far, he has learned to say the previously mentioned sentence and "God made people." He doesn't say anything on the Sunday he learns it, but after a good night's sleep, he seems to need to share his new knowledge about God. Holy Spirit, do your work!

He came into my room and said,

"We're going on a bear hunt! We're going to catch a big one! What a boooooo-a-ful day! We're not -cared!"

Some friends recently gave us their copy of We're Going on a Bear Hunt; and after a couple of readings with PapA, GRITS was able to spit this repeated paragraph out, rapidly and confidently! I was sleepy and shocked, trying to figure out what he had said and then it clicked.

His new favorite book!

Garden musings

Today in the garden, I saw John the Baptist:


I saw the tenacity of life, which I have a difficult time understanding in general:

I saw the promise of warm light at the end of the cold tunnel:

I saw the fruition of patience:

And I saw some dinners in November:

And I saw some April breakfasts:

What a nice morning in the garden!

Bearing gifts

Yesterday, as we were playing in the garden during the few minutes of dry-ish weather, GRITS came around the corner with his arm outstreched, saying, "MamA, this is for you!" "Uh..., put it on the ground, please." It was a bee! It was a bee, quite alive, struggling to get out of GRITS' grip! Thankfully, he wasn't stung. It looks as though he may be a bee charmer, so maybe he'll follow the great Ethiopian tradition of apiculture. Yum, honey!

A day in the life of GRITS

GRITS is busy. Between writing the letter H on every appropriate surface...

... and practicing his "I want to be incognito"-airport walk,

he makes sure to take frequent breaks for re-fueling on Abuelo's tart apples

and toast with Nutella with Tita.

90% - 10%

Finally! GRITS has begun, in the past two weeks, to speak using "I" instead of "you" when referring to himself. I knew that the pronoun situation would eventually work itself out, but I was getting impatient. Now we just need to nudge out that last 10% and we are set for proper speech. Learning is so much fun to observe... most of the time.

Donations for an orphanage

These are the items, in order of importance, that we would like to collect to bring to an orphanage in Ethiopia, when we go in October:

-gloves, surgical and disposable
-hand sanitizer
-gummy multi-vitamins
-Advil
-anti-itch medicine
-alcohol swabs
-antibiotic cream
-nurse gowns
-tooth paste
-diapers, large
-wipes
-shampoo and conditioner
-liquid soap
-towels, medium
-erasers
-sharpeners
-markers
-pens, blue and red
-scissors
-glue
-underwear